TAI Turna is a

turboprop A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. Fuel ...

-powered

radio-controlled Radio control (often abbreviated to RC) is the use of control signals transmitted by radio to remotely control a device. Examples of simple radio control systems are garage door openers and keyless entry systems for vehicles, in which a smal ...

target drone introduced in 2001. Designed, developed and built by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) and powered by an engine manufactured by

Tusaş Engine Industries Tusaş Engine Industries (TEI; tr, TUSAŞ Motor Sanayii A.Ş.) is an aerospace engine manufacturer and a design center for the production of engines and engine parts for commercial and military aircraft. It is based in Eskişehir, Turkey. TEI wa ...

(TEI), the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is in use by the

Turkish Armed Forces The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF; tr, Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri, TSK) are the military forces of the Republic of Turkey. Turkish Armed Forces consist of the General Staff, the Land Forces, the Naval Forces and the Air Forces. The current Chi ...

in target tracking and gunnery firing exercises. Turna is the Turkish word for species crane. TAI has some other UAV's named after birds.

Overview

The Research and Development Department of the Turkish Ministry of National Defence awarded a contract to the TAI in August 1995 for the development of a drone for use by Turkish Air Force and

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

in target tracking and gunnery firing exercises. The initial version, named as Turna/S, was first launched in September 1996. Testing of the prototype completed in 1997. Following trials by Turkish Army and

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

ended in 1998. TAI Turna is used for training with Rapier and Stinger

surface-to-air missiles A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...

, as well as

anti-aircraft gun Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

s from

7.62 mm The 7.62 mm caliber is a nominal caliber used for a number of different cartridges. Historically, this class of cartridge was commonly known as .30 caliber, the imperial unit and customary unit equivalent, and was most commonly used for ...

to 76 mm caliber. Firing takes place at a towed sleeve or banner, or even directly at the drone.

Development

Between 2001 and 2003, new versions of Turna/S was developed with designations Turna-101A, -111B and -201C, featuring roll-damping avionics, aerodynamic packages, improved stability and greater reliability. Based on experience gained by launches from

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

s and sorties in bad weather conditions, a new generation was evaluated under the name Tuna/G. Intermediate versions such as Turna-303C, -401C, -411C-501D and-502D served for improvements to autonomy, reliability, aerodynamics, lateral and directional stability as well as available volume for modular payloads. In order to offer alternative configurations, different components such as servos, propeller and engine were also integrated and tested. Turna/G has operational capability of beyond-visual-range (BVR), which its forerunner Turne/S lacked. It was introduced in 2003, and went into production in late 2004. Turna/G was propelled by an air-cooled rotary engine of type AR741 made by UAV Engines Ltd in the United Kingdom. The single engine developed a power of . The drone was later fitted with a turboprop engine of type TEI-TP-1X, a small centrifugal gas turbine, manufactured by TAI's subsidiary Tusaş Engine Industries (TEI). This version made its first test flight on April 4, 2008. The delta-winged UAV with V-tail has all

composite material A composite material (also called a composition material or shortened to composite, which is the common name) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or ...

airframe The mechanical structure of an aircraft is known as the airframe. This structure is typically considered to include the fuselage, undercarriage, empennage and wings, and excludes the propulsion system. Airframe design is a field of aerospa ...

. Payloads of the drone are passive radar cross-section enhancer (

Luneburg lens A Luneburg lens (original German ''Lüneburg lens'', sometimes incorrectly spelled ''Luneberg lens'') is a spherically symmetric gradient-index lens. A typical Luneburg lens's refractive index ''n'' decreases radially from the center to the outer ...

), acoustic miss distance indicator (MDI),

infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...

flares and smoke. Data link is accomplished by encrypted real-time telemetry, and guidance/tracking takes place fully autonomous based on

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

integrated waypoint navigation system. The target drone takes off from a catapult launcher on land or from naval vessel, and is recovered by parachute or lands on skid in water.

Variants

* Turna/S, standard version * Turna/G, advanced version

Specifications (Turna/G)

References

External links

Turna photo gallery at Turk Military website
{{commonscat, TAI Turna Target drones of Turkey Turna Single-engined pusher aircraft Delta-wing aircraft V-tail aircraft 2000s Turkish military aircraft